ICC's undercover agents

Even if ICC's idea to circulate undercover spies posing as bookies doesn't take off, I think the very concept must have brought in wariness amongst the rotten-apple fraternity.
In fact, this might just be the ICC's intention - propose the idea, have cricketing boards of member nations express scepticism over its workability, creating a stir over the issue and leave doubts lingering in its aftermath. If that's what it is, I think it is a master-stroke which will go a long way in instilling fear amongst the Salman Butts of cricket.

Darwinism and Dasavataramism

In yet another observation which suggests that science compliments religion, parallels can be drawn between Darwinism and age-old held beliefs of Hinduism.
The Dashavatars are a true sequential depiction of the evolution theory put forth by Charles Darwin.
The nine avatars of Lord Vishnu are as follows:
Matsyavatar - Fish
Kurmavatar - Tortoise
Varahavatar - Boar
Narasimhavatar - Half Man Half Lion
Vamanavatar - Dwarf Man
Parashuramavatar - Human Being
Ramavatar and Krishnavatar - advanced human beings
Kalki Avatar - yet to happen

According to the theory put forth by Darwin, life originated in the water. Matsyavatar - Fish
Reptiles and amphibians came next. Kurmavatar - Tortoise
Upgradation to the primitive land animal - Varahavatar - Boar
After herbivores had been around for some time, advent of the carnivores. Narasimhavatar - Half Man Half Lion
Advent of the first man - Vamanavatar - Dwarf Man
Arrival of the human being. Parashuramavatar - Human Being
Ram and Krishna are highly evolved versions of Homo sapiens. Ramavatar and Krishnavatar respectively

Darwin proposed his theory around 150 years back but I think the Puranas were here a tad earlier ;)
Sorry, Charles, but we got there first.

Bihar Assembly Elections 2010

Much has been said and written about how the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is transforming Bihar, one of India's most backward states. As a result, a lot of grass-root level changes are visible in that state. Better roads, better investment in primary education (50% of the state's budget has been spent on education in the last 5 years !), de-criminalization of politics, reverse brain drain to name a few.

The assembly elections juggernaut gets underway in Bihar this week. On the face of it, Nitish Kumar should be a shoo-in.
But the Indian electorate has a notorious reputation of not being appreciative enough of incumbent progressive CMs. So, to me the assembly elections that gets underway in Bihar this week is a very important barometer of the maturity levels of Bihar's electorate. I'm very curious to know how the common man will respond. Will he opt for the forward looking, progressive Nitish Kumar or will he go back to Laloo Prasad and his regressive caste politics ? For, these two gentlemen are the frontrunners for the CM position.

I'm going to follow the Bihar polls very closely indeed.

Sydney Morning Herald - Unethical Journalism

While watching the live telecast of the CWG closing ceremony, I was idly browsing the site of the Sydney Morning Herald, a leading Australian English daily. The site was already uploaded with the pics of some of the events of the closing ceremony. Pretty cool, I thought. I clicked on the associated story. I was in for a shock.

It contained a detailed description of some of the events even as they were unfolding live in front of my eyes and of some events which were yet to start ! I rubbed my eyes in disbelief. How's this possible, I asked myself. It was only after a couple of minutes of double checking and cross verifying I realised what was actually happening.

SMH in its infinite wisdom chose to go by the closing ceremony itinerary it had in its possession and cook up a report with descriptions of individual events and run it on its site - no matter whether the events had actually happened or not !
Owing to the time difference, (Sydney is 5 hours plus ahead of India.) most Australians would have been sleeping when the report went online and hence wouldn't notice. I guess SMH reasoned that non-Australians wouldn't probably notice either.
Well, all I can say is they were wrong.

Unethical journalism, to say the least.

My name is Antony Gonsalves !

Ever spent sleepless nights wondering what Amitabh Bachan says in English in the 'My name is Anthony Gonsalves' number in the movie 'Amar Akbar Anthony' ? Well, here you go - this is what he says :-)
"You see, the whole country of the system
Is justaposition by the haemoglobin in the atmosphere
Because you are a sophisticated rhetorician
Intoxicated by the exuberance of your own verbosity"

VVS strikes again !

VVS weaves his magic again ! There's no other word to describe the way he constructed his innings, marshalled the strike and generally held the lower order together.
I've never seen him so animated at the middle - yelling at Pragyan Ojha for not taking a single that was there for the taking, gesturing towards his runner to convert ones into twos and twos into threes etc. To me, it showed how much he valued an Indian win, coming as it would against the Aussies. That he reserves his best against the Australians is part of folklore now. But even by his high standards, this innings stood out. He was on painkillers and using a runner. The fifth day Mohali pitch was crumbling and the Aussie quicks were breathing fire. Save for Ishant Sharma, wickets were falling all around him but VVS stood firm. The silken drives, the wristy flicks were all on display. My admiration for the man just went up a few notches.

Sure, Tendulkar's 98 in the first innings, Zaheer's 8 for and Ishant Sharma's 30 odd runs were very important contributions. But in my book, VVS took India home, which is what matters

05/oct/2010. Mohali.
Aus 428/10 | Ind 405/10 | Aus 192/10 | Ind 216/9
Ind won by 1 wkt. Man of the match: Zaheer Khan
India leads 1-0